


Say My Name

by Akumeoi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Background Dads of Marmora, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Galaxy Garrison, Galra Keith (Voltron), Happy Ending, Light Angst, Minor Matt Holt/Shiro, Soulmates, Worldbuilding, allura lance and hunk have cameos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-07 20:57:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13443249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akumeoi/pseuds/Akumeoi
Summary: During puberty, most people develop a soulmark somewhere on their body - a mark which shows their future soulmate's name. But something is wrong with Katie's soulmark - if it is a name, it's written in a language that no one can understand. Katie grows up believing that her soulmate doesn't exist, but after her brother and father disappear during the Kerberos expedition, she'll meet a soulmate she never could have expected.





	1. Part One: the Mark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Revasnaslan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Revasnaslan/gifts).



> This is for Rev! Happy birthday, sweetheart! ♥♥♥

When Katie was eight, her brother Matt found what appeared to be three Chinese characters tattooed on his right hip. After consulting a local doctor who specialised in the interpretation of soulmate marks, they determined that the name Matt bore was more likely to be of Japanese origin. Katie remembered her brother's intense curiosity over what the foreign characters might mean, how they might be pronounced. 

When they learnt that they were Japanese, Matt decided to spend hours studying the language by himself, just in case his future soulmate or his soulmate’s family didn't know how to speak English. Katie, ever curious, helped him with his kanji flashcards and soon the two were competing to see who could learn more faster. Eventually Matt learnt how to pronounce the name: Takashi Shirogane. They didn't know anyone at school with that name, so they just assumed Matt would have to wait until he was older to finally meet his soulmate.

Katie's soulmate tattoo came in when she had just turned fourteen. It was only a few weeks after her birthday when she was getting dressed after a shower and found faint gray lines forming on her ribs underneath her right breast. Excited, she threw on some clothes and ran to Matt's room, lifting her shirt just enough to show him the slowly-forming mark. 

“Do you think it will be Japanese for me too?” Katie asked Matt, who was busy packing to go to the Galaxy Garrison. He had recently been accepted into a prestigious experimental astronaut training programme there. 

“Probably just English,” Matt said, grinning at her enthusiasm and ruffling her hair. Katie knew he was probably right - it was most likely that her soulmate would live in America, like her and her family, but her adventurous spirit still had her hoping her soulmate might know another language or come from somewhere far away. Then, she would have an excuse to see the world with them. After leaving Matt's room, she went back to the mirror to see if she could make out the letters, but so far they were faint and barely beginning to form.

For the next few days, Katie studiously monitored the progress of her soul mark. The outlines of the letters began to appear in light grey, then darken to black. The font they were written in, which was different for everyone, was sharp and cutting, like a series of elegant slashes. And the more days that passed, the more certain Katie was that whatever language this name was written in, she had never seen it before in her life.

As they had done with Matt, Katie's parents brought her straight to the specialist - the very same one who had successfully identified the Japanese soulmark. 

“There are many mysteries in this universe, but the science of soulmate bonds has come a long way since I was a kid,”her dad said as they pulled up to the bland, industrial, grey cement office complex that housed the specialist’s office.

Seeing her nervousness, her mother chimed in, “Don't worry, sweetheart. I’m sure Doctor Boulos will tell us where your soulmate comes from, just like she did for Matt.”

Katie didn't want to say anything, but she already had a horrible feeling in her chest that none of that was true. She didn't know how to describe it - it was as if as the soulmark grew, it had absorbed a part of her and sent it out into empty space. Or maybe it was that Katie herself was now floating alone in the void, tethered to nothing by an illegible anchor and some vain hope that those precise yet vacant strokes could actually mean something. It wasn’t like Katie to be so pessimistic so quickly, but she just couldn't help it. Everything felt so out of control.

When they were finally seen, the Dr. Boulos confirmed as much.

“I'm sorry to report, Mr. and Mrs. Holt, Katie, that your soulmark is in a writing system that does not exist.”

“That's impossible!” Mr. Holt exclaimed. “If Katie has it, it _must_ exist!”

“I'm afraid not,” the doctor sighed, clearly uncomfortable with the news she was delivering.

 _Whatever, witch_ , Katie thought acidly, not giving a crap about the doctor’s feelings. _She_ probably had a soulmate waiting for her at home, after all.

“Sometimes soulmate marks are just… not properly formed. It doesn't mean that Katie doesn't have a soulmate, but that there is something wrong with her mark. Still, we do have a good success rate in reuniting people with damaged soul marks. Especially since the advent of the internet. I'll upload pictures of Katie's mark to the worldwide online database. If anyone else with a similar mark is found, we’ll contact you right away. I can also arrange another consultation with a specialist in unknown soul marks, if you want Katie's case examined individually,” Dr. Boulos explained. 

Katie felt a surge of hope when the specialist was mentioned, but her pessimistic side said that she already knew what the specialist would find. Nothing. Still, a good scientist always examined every possibility. She had to look into it, or she couldn't call herself a Holt.

“Katie?” Mrs. Holt said gently, and she nodded. “Alright, we’d like to make an appointment with the specialist,” her mom told the doctor. 

“Of course,” she replied. “I'll give Dr. Vincent a call and have him look at your soul mark. He should get back to you by the end of the month.”

“What kind of results can we expect from him?” Mr. Holt asked, ever the pragmatist.

“He’ll manually check the database for marks like Katie's, as well as searching the internet and comparing her mark against past unknown marks and even different alphabets,” the doctor explained. “If there's ever been a case like this before, he’ll be sure to find it.” 

As Katie’s parents nodded attentively, the doctor paused. Katie herself was staring down at her shoes, trying not to let the tears that were pricking at her eyelids overwhelm her.

“I must warn you…” the doctor said hesitantly. “This kind of soul mark aberration is exceedingly rare. Normally they are faded, distorted, appear in pieces, or even overwrite themselves. It's very unusual for one to be so distinct and complete, yet impossible to read.” She took a deep breath, directing her gaze to Mr. Holt, who appeared to be the most composed of the three Holts - Mrs. Holt was clutching her husband's arm, and Katie's hands were balled into white-knuckled fists. Nevertheless, the doctor continued, her eyes full of pity. “You should know that although there is no doubt Katie _has_ a soulmate… there is a chance there is something wrong with the metaphysical bond between them. I would suggest you also look into relationship counselling classes. It may help when the time comes.”

With those words ringing in her ears, Katie let her parents shepherd her gently out of the office and back into the car. Both her mom and her dad tried offering words of reassurances, but Katie didn't even hear them. In the car, she sat curled up with her face pressed against the window, staring blankly out into a world that looked colourless and grey. She wanted to cry, but she mostly just wanted to be left alone. 

“Katie? Katie?” she finally heard her mother saying.

“I don't want any counselling classes,” Katie blurted out angrily. “I'm not going unless they find my soulmate. Or it's just a big waste of time.”

“That's fine, sweetie,” her mom said sympathetically, exchanging a glance with her dad that Katie didn't see. “Your dad and I were just wondering if you wanted to go to the Bridgeville Diner tonight.”

The diner had been built in an old dining car from a train, all chrome and shiny and with a vintage jukebox. It was Katie's favourite because the food was just the right mix of greasy and flavourful to be delicious. And she liked switching the tracks on the jukebox and watching the old gears turn.

Katie swallowed down the lump in her throat. “Thanks, Mom,” she said. “I'd like that.”

Although the visit cheered her up a little, nothing could truly distract her from thoughts of the soulmate she was supposed to have had. That evening, she cried alone in her room, ignoring her parents when they knocked on her door. Late that night, she crept into Matt’s room and fell asleep there instead, surrounded by comforting reminders of her brother’s presence. 

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t convince herself to be completely dispassionate and rational about the situation. By the end of the month she caught herself half hoping that the soulmark specialist would be able to help give her some clues as to their identity in spite of the fact that she still felt like they didn’t even exist.  
This time, her mom accompanied her to the meeting with the specialist, Dr. Vincent. As Katie had expected, he had very little information to give them about her soul mark. He showed them some marks from the database which he claimed were similar, but Katie couldn’t see the resemblance. To her, they looked like corrupted Korean hangul, but her soulmark was clearly not Korean. Still, he promised to keep looking and call them back for a second consultation in another six months. 

As far as Katie was concerned, he could be waiting to hear back from _her_ forever. If he was incompetent enough to confuse hangul with a totally unknown writing system, which looked more like Japanese katakana to her _anyway_ , there was no reason for her to have any faith in him whatsoever. She threw herself into her technical projects, practiced her Japanese and wrote long emails to Matt. In the past she had occasionally fantasized about who her soulmate might be. She had hoped for someone curious, passionate, rational, and loyal. Someone who would be supportive of her projects and who wouldn’t mind her weird sleep cycle. She had been prepared to accept any man, woman, or person the fates might throw her way, just as Matt had - but now. 

But now, but _now_... what she had to accept was an absence. 

It was hard.

Six months later, Katie received news that changed everything - but it wasn't from the doctor. It was from Matt. He had finally meet Takashi Shirogane. Matt's long email faithfully recorded all the details for her - how Shiro was a class ahead of him at the garrison, how he had a cute undercut and sometimes wore make-up, how his English was perfect but both his parents were native Japanese speakers, one of the possibilities Matt had considered when studying the language. The two of them had already been on three dates by the time Katie got the email. 

And Shiro was excited to meet her, and was interested in speaking Japanese with her. And Katie took three weeks to answer the email because she didn't know how to tell Matt that there was nothing she would like less in the whole world than to hear another word about _anybody's_ soulmate. She felt guilty that she couldn’t feel happy for him, that instead all she felt… was jealousy and hurt.

Thereafter, Matt restricted the contents of his emails to his classes and projects. Apparently he and Shiro were the Garrison golden boys. Katie knew she could do just as well as him someday, but for now she had to finish high school and maybe try and build some kind of soul mark analysis device. If all other people in her situation had to depend on were incompetent doctors like Dr. Boulos and Dr. Vincent, she wanted to be able to help them. Instead of linguistics and medical training, let them use mathematics and logic. Katie tried to pretend that a part of her wasn’t desperately hoping she might be able to use it to locate her own soulmate as well. Months passed like this. Three years of high school flew by. 

One spring night, Mr. Holt came home bursting with news. 

“You’ll never guess what's been approved, honey!” he called to his wife, striding through the front door with an excited spring in his step. In his hand he clutched a sheaf of official-looking papers. Katie, who was sitting at the kitchen table fixing her mother's laptop, looked up.

“Hey there, pumpkin,” Mr. Holt said, momentarily distracted by his daughter not being holed up in her room as usual when he came home.

“What is it, Dad?” Katie asked as he dropped a kiss on top of her head and ruffled her hair, before going to Mrs. Holt and surprising her by sweeping her up in a hug. Laughing, she pushed him gently away so she could keep stirring the sauce cooking on the stove.

“The Kerberos project has been approved!” Mr. Holt said. Katie gasped. 

“No way!” she said, grabbing the papers out of her dad's hand and scanning the front. “KERBEROS MOON EXPEDITION” the cover page read.

“Hey there, that's top secret information,” Mr. Holt teased, taking the papers back from her. 

“Who will be leading the project?” Mrs. Holt said as Katie tried to peer into the pages of the document from the side.

“We don't know yet, but I know they have their eye on me,” Mr. Holt said proudly. “And since Matt’s at the top of his class, I think they are considering him as a junior officer for the mission. Now that the project has been approved, it will probably take about a year for everything to be put in order, so Matt has time to graduate. We’ll see. Isn't it exciting?”

“Aww, I wanna go,” Katie complained, and her father laughed.

“If you want to go to space someday, all you have to do is work hard and get into the Galaxy Garrison. By the time you graduate, maybe we'll have established colonies on Mars. Who knows where you'll go, Katie? Kerberos is just the beginning,” Mr. Holt said. He gave Katie a fond and excited smile, then went upstairs to get ready for dinner. 

From then on the Holt family could hardly pass a day without talking about the progress of the Kerberos mission. Katie was equal parts excited and jealous. Her dad was friends with some of the engineers designing the ship and the equipment he would be using in space, and he would bring home blueprints, models, and even small prototypes for Katie to examine. For a time, Katie was able to forget about her twisted soul bond and the mate she would probably never find, the fact that the doctor hadn't called back in over a year now. When Shiro was confirmed as the third member of the expedition, Katie even found it in herself to be _happy_ for him. 

“Maybe we'll find aliens out there,” Matt joked. Katie laughed. Even if extraterrestrial life existed, which Katie and Matt both believed in, there was no way any sentient species lived close enough to Earth's solar system for contact to be established with a short journey to Kerberos.

The day of the launch, Katie and her mother were there in person, watching the shuttle blast off and streak into the sky with a fiery trail. Katie knew how every system in its perfectly crafted hull operated, how every piece fit together. And her dad, Matt, and Shiro - how they fit together as a team, how the three of them could run drills for every eventuality with optimum speed and efficiency. _They were going to Kerberos._ And Katie couldn't wait to see what they would find.

\-----

Katie had been stupid, so stupid. She was never going to have a soulmate - her family was all that she had. And yet it never occurred to her, as she watched her father and brother blast off in a rocket, that there was ever a chance for her to lose them. Her dad so wise, her brother so clever. Two new holes joined the one that already sat under her heart in its mocking unintelligibility. 

Every day hurt. Katie woke up and the emptiness echoed, where before the disappearance it had just felt a little strange. Katie watched as her mother fell into a torpor of grief over her missing soulmate and son, as officials came by and lied through their teeth about where the shuttle had gone. She knew the crew, she knew the ship, and nothing about this situation made a single bit of sense. This was a million times worse than missing some nebulous soulmate. With her dad and her brother, Katie actually knew what she was missing.  
Matt’s goofy grin. Her dad’s patient smile and wise advice. Matt’s nerdy jokes and her dad’s pet names. Giving them a hug, the sounds of their voices and their laughter. Having a family and not a broken, empty house.

Well, Katie was going to _get them back_.

She hacked the Galaxy Garrison’s computing mainframe and added a new student to the roster - a male one, because the Katie was a girl who nobody listened to, and she didn't want to be that girl. Besides, this was an undercover mission, and people knew Katie there. Then she learnt that there was a chance an unidentified spacecraft had been in the vicinity of Kerberos around the time her family disappeared. The buggy and incomplete soulmark analysis device was abandoned in favour of a radio that could pick up alien radio signals. She altered a couple of Matt’s old uniforms, ditched her contacts in favour of glasses, cut her hair, scraped together some money for the taxi fare out to the Garrison, left her mother a note explaining she was going to find Dad and Matt...

And Katie became Pidge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because this is for Rev, and she likes worldbuilding, I will put all of my worldbuilding notes at the end of the fic in their own chapter. This fic will probably take me a while to write because the first part took like 6 months to begin with (whoops) but I faithfully promise to finish it!
> 
> Comments always welcome. :)


	2. Part Two: The Ship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the second time on this fic, happy birthday my dear Rev! I promise you the next chapter will come out sooner than this one.
> 
> Comments always welcome!

Pidge was on the roof, arguing with the two members of her Galaxy Garrison cadet training squadron who had decided to follow her up here and waste her precious radio time. The alien radio chatter was extra busy tonight, the strange word “Voltron” that she'd been hearing all week now repeating so frequently that she had to check her device to make sure it wasn't malfunctioning and accidentally playing the same thing on loop. Something was happening out in space - and Pidge was certain that that something was related to the disappearance of her family. Still, she hadn’t been able to resist taking a break from her eavesdropping to brag about how the radio worked to Hunk...

Then Lance brought up the Kerberos mission.

So many things ran through Pidge’s mind, then. That Lance couldn't be trusted to keep a secret, for one. That no one would believe any of her secrets, for two. That if hostile aliens landed on Earth looking for this Voltron weapon, it might be better to have a pilot and another engineer on her side. That even if she didn’t know Lance all that well, he - and everyone else who would listen - deserved to be forewarned. 

So she said, “The Kerberos mission wasn't lost because of some malfunction or crew mistake. I've been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter.”

“Woah, what?” Hunk said, sitting up and finally getting his hands away from her equipment. “Aliens?”

“Okay, so you're insane,” Lance said. “Got it.”

Pidge gritted her teeth. “I'm serious,” she said. “They keep repeating one word: Voltron.” Lance and Hunk were both looking, so she held up the notebook she’d been doodling in earlier to show them the word written in bold letters across the top of the page. “And tonight, it's going crazier than I have _ever_ heard it.”

“How crazy?” Lance said, trying to be casual, but Pidge could tell she had an opening to convince him.

As soon as she opened her mouth to respond, the Garrison's emergency alert siren began to blare, completely cutting her off. For a moment, Pidge was unreasonably annoyed at the interruption - but then she heard the alert code. Zulu niner. An imminent unauthorised aircraft landing. 

Pidge’s first irrational thought was - _They're coming._

Pidge looked to the sky. There, directly above the Garrison, was a fiery ball plummeting closer and closer, cutting open a trail across the darkened sky.

“That’s a very, very big meteor,” Hunk said, sounding scared. Without taking her eyes from the sky, Pidge reached behind her for her slightly augmented military-issue night vision goggles, though she already knew what she would see.

“It's a ship,” she confirmed. A ship burning up on re-entry. Lance tried to snatch the goggles from her hands, putting them to his face even as she stubbornly refused to let go.

“Holy crow! I cant believe what I’m seeing. That's not one of ours!” Lance said, and Hunk gave an audible gulp. The three of them watched in horror and awe as the ship streaked towards the desert in a fiery glow, then lit up the night sky as it slammed into the ground with an impact that seemed to shake the entire Garrison. 

Lights came on in the courtyard below - the lights of the all-terrain vehicles the Garrison kept around for patrolling the grounds and for non-aeronautical military training. Pidge knew where they would be going - the crash site. And if there was one thing she knew for sure, it was that whatever they found, the soldiers at the Garrison could absolutely not be trusted to report on it truthfully to the public.

“We gotta see that ship,” she said, shoving all of her equipment back into her backpack. Not waiting to see if Lance and Hunk were following, Pidge made straight for the exit to the roof. 

By the time Pidge, Lance, and Hunk made it to the crash site, an isolation tent had already been set up. Pidge immediately set about grabbing the feed from the video cameras in the tent. As soon as she could see inside, her heart leapt.

It was _Shiro_. Her brother’s soulmate. One of his arms had been replaced by a mechanical prosthetic. His soulmark had not been located on that arm, thank goodness. As Hunk so aptly pointed out, Shiro wasn't “dead in space” like they'd been saying on TV for months now - but where was Matt? Where was her father? They _had_ to be alive, they just had to be. Otherwise, Pidge would _know_. 

Pidge had to get down there to talk to Shiro before the government spirited him and his precious information about her family away.

“We have to get down there,” Pidge said.

“I hate to be the voice of reason here, always,” Hunk said, standing, “But weren't we just watching on TV because there was no way to get past the guards?”

“That was before we were properly motivated,” Lance said. “We just need to think.” He folded his arms and frowned. Hunk’s jaw dropped.

“What, it's not like I never have good ideas. I got you and me out of the Garrison, right?” Lance said, obviously offended by Hunk’s expression. But instead of replying, Hunk just pointed at the sky, eyes round as saucers, hand shaking from fear. Both Lance and Pidge turned to look.

There was a second ship streaking through the night sky, not engulfed in flames but leaving a smoky trail of exhaust. Through her goggles, Pidge could see that this ship, too, was of a different make to any she had seen on Earth before. As she saw it flying towards them, a sudden thrill went through her body, a shivering chill that stole her breath away. 

Could it be her dad and Matt returning too? But why would they be in a different ship to Shiro - especially when Shiro was the pilot of the expedition? No, it was more likely that whatever was in that ship… was chasing after Shiro.

Pidge’s stomach roiled as she fought against fear and hope in equal measure. Suddenly her body was full of emotions that were completely out of her control. It felt as if that ship were being drawn directly towards her, like it was connected to her. Seeing it was like feeling a piece of the universe fall into place before her very eyes. Her heart beat wildly in her chest, and she felt like she could barely catch her breath.

“What, what is that? Is that the aliens? Are they here? They got here so fast,” Hunk moaned, oblivious to Pidge’s intense inner conflict. In the valley below, someone else noticed the second intruder. The hazmat crew were summoned from the isolation tent and began hastily disrobing. Two of the younger soldiers took over guarding the main tent, while the senior officers converged back on the vehicles that had brought them there. Headlights flickered back to life as the Garrison soldiers left the area to neutralise the new threat.

“Is it just me, or does this one look like it's actually going to land?” Lance asked, still watching the ship. 

“Oh, we need to get out of here,” moaned Hunk. He looked like he was on the verge of bolting.

Pidge shoved pieces of her equipment back into her bag, trying really hard to pull herself together and stop being so irrational. “If those are the aliens, then Shiro is the only one who will know what to do,” Pidge said firmly. “So yeah, let's go.”

Between Hunk and Lance, with Pidge as a distraction, they were able to take out the remaining guards outside the isolation tent. Once done, they rushed into the tent, not bothering to be stealthy. Inside, they found Shiro quiet and still, head lolling to one side as he slept. As the three of them crowded around the guerney, Pidge intently scanned Shiro's sleeping face for clues about what had happened to him and where her family might be. The robot arm made her fear that they had all been test subjects, lab rats. And what other than stress could explain the new white streak in Shiro’s hair? Pidge shuddered at the thought. Hunk looked similarly nervous.

“Guess we gotta wake him up,” Lance said, poking Shiro in the shoulder. When there was no response, he started lightly slapping both sides of Shiro's face. This time, Shiro moaned and furrowed his brow.

“Wakey, wakey, let's get out of here,” Lance said, glancing warily over his shoulder at the entrance to the isolation tent. Hunk copied his glance, swallowed nervously, and then started helping Lance undo the restraints holding Shiro down.

Meanwhile, Pidge was feeling stranger than ever. She was light-headed, and the room was swimming in front of her eyes. The beats of her heart resounded heavily in her ears. Having gotten the restraints undone, Lance dragged Shiro upright and draped one of his arms over his shoulder. 

“Little help, here?” he said to Hunk and Pidge. Hunk took Shiro’s other arm, but Pidge couldn’t move, clutching one of the medical carts and trying to take deep breaths. Hunk and Lance looked at her in concern. Pidge wanted to cry. Her brother’s stupid soulmate was here, but her family was still gone. And now she felt like shit, and she couldn’t do anything - and she could still feel that space ship, coming towards her...

“Hey, uh, you good to go? We gotta get out of here before anyone comes back,” Hunk said. 

“Yeah, I’m good,” Pidge said, trying hard to will it so. At that moment, the door opened, and all three of them turned towards it. Pidge was ready to throw a scalpel at anyone who tried to get in their way -- 

But the person in the doorway wasn’t even human. 

The alien was completely clothed in some kind of skin-tight, bluish-grey armour, with two glowing carat-shaped marks on his chest and a large glowing rivet marking each hip. He was not wearing a helmet or a mask, and his face was covered in what appeared to be light purple fur, though he also had a darker patch of fur on his head which resembled human hair. It was cut in the shape of a mullet, Pidge noted giddily. He also had large, fluffy, catlike ears, and surprisingly human-looking eyes with purple irises. He also had a weapon of some kind strapped across his back.

Pidge’s eyes met his, and a bolt shot through her body, like a strange pulse beating outward from her heart and sending shoots down her limbs. But as it subsided, the beating of her heart did too, and the room begin to clear. She felt a little light-headed, but in total possession of herself again.

“Oh no, it’s the aliens!” Hunk shouted, stepping back and dragging Lance and Shiro with him. 

“Get Shiro out of here, I’ll distract it,” Pidge said, picking up the scalpel and holding it out in front of her in a clearly threatening gesture. What she could do with it, she didn’t know, but she couldn’t let this alien hurt Shiro, if such were its mission. Hunk and Lance stared at her for a moment, but Lance regained his senses and started pulling Hunk and Shiro around the guerney, while Pidge used the scalpel to gesture at the alien to get out of their way. 

“I’m not here to hurt you,” said the alien in perfect English, and Lance and Hunk both screamed, nearly dropping Shiro, while Pidge’s hand wavered as she continued to threateningly hold out the scalpel. The alien’s voice had the same pitch and timbre of that of a young human male. But Pidge was not moved.

“Oh yeah?” she said. “Then get out of our way.”

“No, wait,” the alien said. “Where are you taking him? I - I need him, the universe needs him. I don’t have time to explain this now.” It sounded to Pidge like he was stressed, not that she knew anything about alien emotions. “I need him to help me find Voltron.”

“Voltron?” Lance echoed, looking at Pidge as Hunk attempted to edge them around the side of the tent and make it to the exit. Noticing this, the alien moved to block off the doorway, even as Pidge thrust the scalpel towards him again. 

“We are _not_ helping you find a weapon,” she said through gritted teeth. 

The alien threw up his hands in frustration. “Okay! Okay, fine, I don’t have time for this, but I’m not letting him out of my sight. Let’s get out of here before those soldiers come back.”

Pidge hesitated, the scalpel wavering between them. This alien knew something about Voltron, and might know something about Shiro - and Matt and her dad. And weirdly, she felt like they could trust this alien - it must have been the humanlike eyes and mannerisms.

“Fine,” Pidge said, lowering the scalpel slowly. Lance and Hunk were both staring at her, and Pidge felt a rush of satisfaction as she realised that she had just negotiated first contact with an alien race. Still, she had to remain on her guard, and she couldn’t savour the moment. She shoo’ed the alien out of the tent, allowing Hunk, Shiro, and Lance to follow behind her. 

Once outside, she realised that they were still in danger. There were lights just over the horizon, and she could hear the revving of engines. 

“Dammit,” she cursed. 

“Follow me,” the alien said urgently, beckoning them to a strange, hovering vehicle stationed a few feet from the entrance to the tent, behind an outcropping of rock. Pidge, and probably both Hunk and Lance, would have loved to stop and argue with him again. But those cars weren’t slowing in their approach, so they didn’t have that choice. Hunk helped Lance drape Shiro across the middle of the craft while the alien took the driver’s seat and Pidge scrambled to climb on behind him, still holding the scalpel in one hand. 

With the touch of a button, the craft came to life, though the engine produced hardly more than a low whine of vibration. Pidge nervously clutched the sides of the craft with one hand and both of her legs. The alien changed gears, and then the craft started moving. 

The damn thing was _fast_ , even with five of them on it. Pidge felt her stomach swoop and tried to grip more with her knees. She couldn’t see behind them, but she could hear the roar of the Garrison vehicles in pursuit. Shiro’s feet were digging into her back, while the wind whipped at her face and pressed her glasses up against her nose.

“Big human, lean left!” the alien called, and Hunk did so, making the craft dip and pivot abruptly to the side. At least one of the three conscious human passengers screamed, and Pidge instinctively grasped the side of the craft with the hand that was supposed to be holding the scalpel, letting it fall into the dust behind them. Well, there went their only weapon. But there was no way in hell she was letting go. This alien drove like a maniac. Pidge’s scientific side wondered if all aliens from his planet were as reckless as him, or if it was just this guy in particular. The rest of her was too busy clutching the craft and trying not to fall off every time it fishtailed precariously. 

“Big human, lean right!” the alien said, and the craft actually skimmed across a deep trench, from a narrow ledge on one side to a narrow ledge on the other. Pidge’s heart was in her throat as the all-terrain vehicles following them barely made the jump across the gap. Judging by the crashing noises coming from behind them, at least one of them had wiped out. 

Just then, Hunk stuttered, “Guys, ha-ta-tut-tut-tut, is that a cliff up ahead?”

“What are you doing? You’re going to kill us all!” Lance shrieked. 

“Just shut up and trust me,” the alien said, increasing speed. Before Pidge could react, they were flying out into the void, the ground disappearing out from under them and leaving them suspended in blue-grey space. 

And then they were falling. 

Pidge screamed and held on for dear life, feeling Shiro’s feet dig into her back as her stomach plummeted to the ground, along with the rest of her. Just as she was convinced they were about to die by impact, the alien shifted gears and the craft shot forward, skimming over the canyon floor.

There was no way that those Garrison vehicles could follow them without the drivers dying. Now that they were on relatively flat ground, Pidge risked a glance behind them. She couldn’t see much over Lance and Hunk’s shoulders, but she could see that the lights behind them in the blurry distance were still. They had escaped. 

“Where are we going?” she asked. Without the roar of the cars following them, there was no need to even shout. 

“We need some cover,” the alien replied, turning slightly to the right. Pidge could see that he was heading for the hills in the distance.

“What about your ship?” Lance said, since obviously the alien hadn’t landed from outer space in this dinky little craft. 

“I’ll get it back later. Stop asking me questions while I’m driving,” the alien said, and they accelerated away.

Around ten minutes later they arrived at the shadow of the hills, where the alien cruised around for a short time before finding a small cave to park the craft inside of. There was a strange, ancient glyph carved into the sandstone wall, if Pidge wasn’t imagining things. Then again, everyone knew that Native Americans had lived here long ago, so she wasn’t particularly surprised. The purple alien was her biggest concern at the moment. 

After they had disembarked, Hunk left the cave to throw up outside while Lance, Pidge, and the alien laid Shiro out on the ground and took his pulse. When Pidge lightly slapped his cheek, he moaned and rolled his head to the side, so she figured he would probably be alright when the anesthesia wore off. 

After Hunk came back, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk sat down in front of Shiro on the rocky floor of the cave, and the alien copied them. The light wasn’t the best, but Pidge noticed that his body proportions were almost exactly the same as those of a human, though his forearms were longer than average. His ears appeared to be highly mobile and expressive, like those of a cat. Not that she could draw any comparisons other than aesthetic ones. Pidge wished that biology were a little more her area of expertise, and that she had some solid data on his species, rather than mere conjecture. 

And she was strangely drawn to him. How she could tell the alien was male, when his species could have multiple genders or no genders, she didn’t know - she could just _tell_. Reading his body language seemed natural to her. The alien was calm, but wary. He didn’t see the three of them as a threat, and maybe he was right. Now _that_ was a less than comforting thought. Maybe his species emitted some kind of pheromone or electric impulse that could put other species at ease. Pidge knew she had to remain on her guard, and clenched her fists behind her back.

“Alright,” Lance said, “Talk.”

Pidge rolled her eyes, wondering when Lance had started calling the shots, but she was too eager to hear what the alien had to say to start a fight about it.

“Uh… I came here to make sure that guy -” the alien pointed at Shiro “- didn’t get himself killed. There’s a war going on in space. The Galra Empire - that’s the _bad guys_ \- are trying to totally dominate the universe. I’m from a rebel group called the Blade of Marmora. Voltron is our last hope to fight back against the Empire. Ulaz, my dad, said--”

“Hold on, wait, wait, wait,” Hunk interrupted. “What’s _your_ name?”

The alien blinked. “My name?” he said. “Oh, right. My name is Keith.”

“Keith?” Pidge said incredulously, before she could stop herself. Behind her back, her fists clenched tighter. “Your name is _Keith_? And how are you speaking English?”

A scowl crossed the alien’s furry purple features. “There’s nothing wrong with my name being Keith. And I’m speaking Galra. My armour has a universal translator in it, okay?”

An intergalactic war? The Galra Empire? The Blade of Marmora? Keith’s dad? And a universal translator? Pidge’s mind was buzzing with more questions she wanted to angrily blurt out.

“Maybe the translator is translating his name,” Hunk suggested. He was still looking a little green from the flight, but Pidge sorta trusted his mechanical expertise. Lance was looking confused, but Hunk added, “We can figure it out later.”

“Yeah,” Keith cut in quickly, flicking his fluffy purple ears. “We have to find Voltron and get out of here.”

Pidge scowled. “We? Or you mean _you_?”

But before Keith could answer, Shiro groaned loudly, startling them all. Pidge, Lance, and Hunk turned to face him. 

“Hey, Shiro, buddy,” Hunk gently said. “You’re safe, now. You’re on Earth. We’re, uh. We’re from the Galaxy Garrison.”

Shiro groaned again, his eyelashes fluttering. He opened his eyes and looked dazedly up at Hunk. His gaze panned slowly to Lance, then to Pidge. 

“Where am I?” he said, his voice slightly slurred. 

“Um, you’re on Earth, in a cave, in the desert,” Lance said. 

“East of the Garrison, at maybe five to seven kilometres?” Hunk added. This didn’t make Shiro look any less confused. He started struggling to sit up, but Hunk, Lance, and Pidge all stopped him. 

“Take it easy, there,” Hunk said. Pidge glanced over her shoulder at Keith, who had moved to a kneeling position to try and see what was going on, his fluffy ears twitching inquisitively. In retrospect, it had been stupid for all three of them to turn their backs on him at once. Still, he wasn’t doing anything, just sitting there, so…

Pidge turned back to Shiro, who was trying to see what she had been looking at. Propping himself up on one elbow in spite of Hunk’s fussing, he looked between Hunk and Lance and finally saw Keith. 

Faster than Pidge had ever seen someone move, Shiro flipped himself onto his feet and backed up against the cave wall into a crouch. The drugs obviously hadn’t worn off all the way yet, though, because his knees were shaky and his brow was beading with sweat. 

“A Galra?” Shiro said, sounding afraid, but angry too. “What is going on?”

“ _You’re_ a Galra?” Pidge demanded Keith. 

“You literally just got done saying the Galra are the bad guys,” Lance put in angrily. Hunk just pressed himself up against the wall with Shiro, one arm raised defensively in front of himself and the other raised to steady Shiro. 

Keith held up his hands placatingly, looking dismayed. “I’m part of the Galra species, but I’m working _against_ the Galra Empire. We all are, I mean the Blade of Marmora is. I’m here to help.”

Shiro’s knee wavered, and he was forced to put it down in the dirt. Lance hovered beside him protectively. “Explain yourself,” Shiro pressed.

““Don’t you remember my dad? He helped you escape from the Empire - and I shot down some fighters for you on the way here.” Pidge started - could Keith’s dad also have helped her brother and father escape? “We believe you can pilot Voltron,” Keith continued. “My intelligence says it’s on this planet - it’s in this cave...” 

Glancing into the depths of the cave, Pidge saw nothing but darkness. Could a powerful alien weapon really be hidden within its depths? 

Pidge glanced back at Shiro’s face, and found him looking upset and confused. “I don’t remember,” Shiro admitted. “Everything is a blur.”

Keith looked from Shiro to Lance to Hunk and finally, to Pidge. Whatever he saw in their expressions must have discouraged him because he sighed, his shoulders slumping in defeat. “You guys are just gonna have to trust me. I’m not working for the Empire.”

“Sending just one guy to start the invasion of Earth does seem kinda unlikely…” Pidge pointed out, irritated at herself for defending Keith even though her logic was sound. “And if he wanted to steal Voltron, why would he risk telling us that it’s in this cave?”

“Because he’s the only one armed?” Lance said, folding his arms and giving Keith a hard stare. Keith rolled his eyes - a surprisingly human gesture on such an alien face. Meanwhile, Pidge thought regretfully of her dropped scalpel. 

“So, let him give us the sword, and then we can trust him?” Hunk suggested. 

“No way!” Keith snapped, baring his sharp canines, and the three humans shrank back. That gesture wasn’t so human. More like something you’d see on a carnivore of some kind, maybe a wolf. Keith was evidently getting frustrated, running one hand through his sleek black hair and accidentally making parts of it stick up. “A Blade is never supposed to be separated from their - blade. I can’t just _give_ it to you.”

Pidge tensed as Lance and Hunk looked to Shiro, who was frowning, clearly still struggling to recall what he knew about the Galra and Keith’s dad. “Well, I’m afraid that’s the price for our cooperation,” Shiro said. “You can have it back after we find this - Voltron.” 

If they had Voltron under their command, whatever it was, surely it could be used to overpower Keith should he turn against them, whether he had his blade or not. At least, Pidge hoped that was Shiro’s logic.

Keith tensed, too, his eyes flicking between the four of them, his ears twitching with what Pidge presumed was nervousness. “Giving you my blade is like the ultimate sign of trust,” he said, putting a hand on it. “I need you to promise you will respect it and give it back - and I chose which of you to give it to.”

“You have my word,” Shiro said. 

Deferring to Shiro, Pidge echoed, “And mine.” Lance and Hunk did the same.

Taking the blade from his back, Keith looked between them again - at Shiro, exhausted and trembling, at Hunk, nervous and suspicious, at Lance, who was already holding out his hand for the blade - and thrust it at Pidge. 

“Me?” Pidge said, even as she wrapped her arms around it. As soon as it left Keith’s grasp, it shrank down to the size of a small knife. Keith’s eyes met hers across the blade. They were intelligent and lively and bright, albeit filled with concern. Pidge swallowed, feeling echoes of that strange, powerful and painful feeling she’d experienced the first time their eyes had met. Maybe he had given it to her because he knew he had some kind of hold over her. Maybe this was a trap.

“Yeah, you,” Keith said, sounding strangely vulnerable for a moment. “Just - take care of it, okay?”

Pidge nodded dumbly, as Keith stepped out of her personal space and she was left clutching the small, inert blade in her arms.

“Is he fit to travel?” Keith said, pointing at Shiro.

They spent another few minutes discussing how to explore the caves, eventually deciding to let Shiro rest for a few more minutes. Keith was quiet as Lance and Hunk whispered to each other, watching his blade as Pidge listened to Lance and Hunk without contributing to their conversation. She felt so muddled and mixed up, and didn’t trust her own judgement at this point. To cope with that, she’d decided to simply gather as much information as she could by listening to Hunk and Lance and keeping a close eye on Keith.

When they finally did get to their feet and continue on into the cave, they found still more carvings marking the walls. When Lance touched one, they began to glow blue - and the ground opened up. They fell down a waterfall, which ultimately led to a spherical, glowing shield. And inside - the Blue Lion of Voltron.

\-----

After the Blue Lion arrived at the Castle of Lions, they met Coran and Princess Allura, who were shocked and appalled that one of the next generation of the Paladins of Voltron would be a hated Galra. Even when Keith protested that he was half Galra and half human and was working for the Blade of Marmora, she actually had Keith thrown into the Castle’s brig. Keith seemed frustrated by his captivity, but he was more upset at the fact that Pidge still hadn’t returned his blade, that he had left his personal spacecraft on Earth, and that he hadn’t been able to contact the rest of his Blade of Marmora while locked up in the Castle of Lions. 

Pidge couldn’t help but feel bad for him - with a strange sadness at the back of her mind that she felt only when she let her guard down. Again she wondered if he or his species had some kind of strange hold over her. It was for this reason that she stayed away from the brig for the entire duration of the time that Keith was in there. Even after Keith was finally released at Shiro’s behest, Pidge only interacted with him once - shoving the blade into his hands and then fleeing back into her room. 

Aside from her feelings about Keith, which she tried her hardest not to think about, Pidge was overjoyed to have finally made it into space. Not only was she closer to her dad and Matt than ever before, but she now had some of the universe’s best technology at her disposal to seek them out and find them. The very day she arrived, she set about trying to make use of the ancient Altean technology of the Castle of Lions. The user interface was written in a writing system Pidge had never seen before in her life. The letters had distinctive circular markings almost like degree signs and periods, yet were completely unlike any writing system on Earth. 

It got Pidge thinking - she was one of the first humans to make contact with alien species. Maybe she was also one of the first humans to ever have an alien soulmate. Pidge didn’t even know if it was possible to be soulmates with a non-human sapient creature. There was no recorded case of a human having a cross-species soulmark - but the aliens Pidge had met so far were in a totally different class of beings to any non-human species on Earth.

The universe was so much bigger than even her father could have predicted. Maybe Pidge had given up on the idea of finding her soulmate too soon. Maybe the alien technology of the Castle of Lions - and its three resident aliens - could help her uncover the answers about her soulmark that she’d been seeking for half her life.


	3. Part Three: The Soulmate

Pidge tried not to be nervous as she knocked on Princess Allura’s door. _The universe is a big place,_ she told herself. Allura wasn’t going to know her soulmate personally, even if she could read Pidge’s soulmark. This visit was supposed to be just to confirm if the soulmark was written in alien writing. If it wasn’t, Pidge would have to go back to plan A of ignoring her soulmark completely while she searched for Matt and her dad.

A few moments later, the door opened. Princess Allura greeted Pidge with a smile. “Pidge! It’s nice to see you. Is there something you wanted to talk to me about?”

It seemed that Allura was still after Pidge for “girl time” ever since she’d revealed her real gender a few days ago. Pidge didn’t really know how to do “girl time”, though she thought that gossiping about soulmarks was something girls did back on Earth – so hopefully this counted.

“Yeah, can I come in?” Pidge said. “I need to ask you a question.”

“Certainly. Make yourself at home,” Allura said, standing aside so Pidge could enter. The door slid shut behind her. As expected, Princess Allura’s room was more spacious than the paladins’ rooms, with a queen-size bed and a vanity with a mirror, where the space mice were sleeping in an open jewellery box. Pidge sat down on the chair at the vanity. 

“Do Alteans have soulmates?” Pidge asked. Allura frowned, sitting down on the edge of her bed.

“We do believe that you can have a special bond with another person, and we do have the romantic idea that certain people could be fated to be together. It’s not something that people really believe, but it’s certainly nice to think about. Is that what you’re referring too?”

“Well… yes and no,” Pidge answered. “For humans, it’s not just an idea. It’s part of our physical biology. When we hit puberty we develop a soulmark on our body that has the name of our soulmate on it.”

“Oh my,” Allura said, peering curiously at Pidge - perhaps looking for her soulmark. “And how do you find that person? Is it always someone you know?”

“That’s the thing,” Pidge said, self-consciously shifting. “You’re guaranteed to meet your soulmate at least once in your life - if your soulmark is normal. But mine’s different than other people’s. I think it might be in an alien language.”

“I could have a look at it for you, if you like,” Allura said eagerly. “I’d love to help you find your soulmate.”

“I was hoping you would say that. Mine’s here,” Pidge said, pointing to her chest, just underneath her right breast. “Is that okay?”

Allura smiled. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t be.”

Her fingers on the hem of her shirt, Pidge took a deep breath. Now was the moment of truth. Time to find out if her soulmate’s name was an alien name - or if it was just as mystifying to Allura as it was to every human doctor she’d seen back on Earth. She hiked up her shirt, along with the hem of her bra. Allura got up and came a little closer to get a better look.

After a moment, Allura’s expression hardened. “That’s Galra writing.”

“Galra?” Pidge exclaimed in dismay. “No - it can’t be.” Keith’s face flashed through her mind and she fearfully pushed it away. “Do Galra even have soulmates?”

“Not to my knowledge,” Allura replied, drawing back as Pidge numbly let her shirt down again. “But you’d have to ask Keith.” She turned her nose up as she said it. 

“Keith! No - are you sure you can’t read it?” Pidge tried one last time. 

Allura’s expression fractionally softened. “I would like to help you, Pidge, but I really can’t have anything to do with the Galra. I’m sorry. I hope for your sake that you don’t have a Galra soulmate after all.”

Disappointed, Pidge left Allura’s room and returned to her own to try and scientifically contemplate the situation. Although Allura was hyper suspicious of Keith, he was a paladin of Voltron, and he’d shown absolutely no hostility or suspicious behaviour towards any of the other paladins so far. Sure, Keith made her personally uncomfortable. But it wasn’t for any logical reason – so she could hardly fault him for it.

And most importantly, Pidge longed finally understand the secret of her own soulmark. For so long she had imagined a formless, nameless soulmate just out of her reach, someone who existed but who didn’t fit her, whose relationship with her was broken somehow. But realising her soulmark could be written in an alien language had made her realise that maybe there was nothing wrong with her soulbond. Maybe there was an alien out there who was curious, passionate, rational, and loyal - all the things she’d once dreamed of as a pre-teen back on Earth. Maybe all she had to do was reach through the vastness of space, and she wouldn’t be alone anymore. 

Pidge would give anything to make that dream come true.

The next day, Pidge went to find Keith. She was even more nervous than she had been outside Allura’s door as she took the elevator to the training deck to find him. Not just because he might be able to give her answers about her soulmate, but because this would be their first one-on-one conversation. Ever.

When she arrived at the training deck, she found Keith sparring against a robot. She saw him glance towards her as she came in, so she waited to the side as he finished the match and then slowly made his way over to her. Even though he’d just been physically exerting himself, he wasn’t visibly sweating (well, maybe his suit had air conditioning). 

“Uh… Pidge, right?” Keith said. 

Clenching her fists, Pidge steeled herself. “Keith, I… need your help.”

“You do?” said Keith, ears flicking backwards in surprise. Pidge marvelled at how mobile they were. Up close, Keith didn’t have such an intimidating presence. In spite of his sharp teeth and claw-tipped hands, his fur looked soft and he seemed very calm and self-possessed. Still, her stomach roiled with nerves.

“I need you to read something for me,” Pidge said, and then gave Keith the same explanation about soulmates and soulmarks that she’d given to Allura. 

“So, will you look at it for me?”

“Um… sure,” Keith said, looking confused. “But are you sure that it’s Galra? We don’t have anything like what you’re talking about. And Imperial military culture isn’t really big on romance… although the Blade of Marmora values bonding. Loyalty and love are very powerful forces.”

“Allura seemed pretty sure,” Pidge said, although if what Keith said was true, she was hoping that Allura was wrong. Assuming her soulmate wasn’t in the Blade of Marmora, it would be hard to have a relationship with a soulmate who didn’t even believe in love.

“Alright, show me,” Keith said, and just like before, Pidge lifted her shirt to reveal the mark. Bending down a little, Keith peered at her soulmark with a frown. His eyes flicked back and forth across it a few times, while Pidge’s anxiety mounted. 

Finally, Keith looked back up at her face. “Is this some kind of a joke?” he said.

“What? No! Why the hell would this be a joke?” Pidge snapped, letting her shirt fall back into place and folding her arms. “Ask any of the paladins - soulmates are real, and they all have one. But I have this stupid mark written in Galra!”

To her horror, angry tears were forming in the corners of her eyes, and she gritted her teeth. Keith seemed to reach out to her for a moment, before he took a step back and held up his arms placatingly.

“Okay, okay,” he said. “I’m sorry. I just think your mark must be wrong.”

“And why do you think that?” Pidge muttered as she angrily wiped tears out from underneath of her glasses. 

“Because… it says Keith vas Noverok. That’s _my_ name.”

Pidge froze, stunned. “It’s _you_?” she said, turning towards him. Memories of all the weird emotions she’d felt just before they’d first met and then after - the feeling his ship was headed straight for her, the pulse of pure feeling as their eyes had met, his decision to give her his blade… the feeling she’d had all her life, that her soulmate was disconnected from her, somewhere far away in space. “Wait a minute - you’re half human. It all makes sense!” she exclaimed joyfully, advancing towards Keith even as he took a step back.

“No, I - it can’t be me,” Keith said, trying to stay at arm’s length. “I don’t have a mark anywhere on my body. My fur has always been just purple.”

Pidge stopped. “What?”

“There could be another Galra named Keith,” Keith said, his ears flicking backwards in unease. “It’s not too different from common Galra names. My grandfather’s name was Keth…”

“But how many half-human Galra are there? How many of them are named Keith vas Noverok? And how many am I gonna meet?” Pidge pleaded. “No… it has to be you.”

“It just can’t be me, okay? I’m sorry,” Keith said exasperatedly.

Pidge tried one last time. “But don’t you feel anything?” she said in a small voice.

“No! I don’t know! Leave me alone!” Keith snapped, unsheathing his blade as he stormed away to restart the training simulation. Pidge was left behind, tears rising up inside her eyes once more. Finally, she turned and ran blindly for the elevator to take her away.

When she arrived back in her room, Pidge threw herself on her bed and sobbed. All the pent-up misery and stress of being far from home, lonely, and alone began to wring itself out of her body in the form of bitter, bitter tears. Normally, she kept herself strong on the hope and the belief that she’d be the one to rescue Matt and her dad herself. But they weren’t here to comfort her now, now when she needed them most. And her soulmate – 

Her soulmate – 

Her soulmate didn’t want to love her.

When Pidge’s tears finally cleared, it was hours later and Shiro was knocking on her door to see if she would come eat. It took all of Pidge’s energy to reply, “I’m sick. I’m staying here.” She didn’t want him to know the truth about what had happened, and hoped that Keith would keep it to himself. She didn’t want the comforting words of anyone who _had_ a soulmate.

After a moment’s hesitation, Shiro said, “I’ll bring you something.” Then he went away. Pidge stayed in her bed, not moving to get up or turn on the lights until Shiro returned and knocked at her door once more. 

Dragging herself out of bed, Pidge unlocked the door long enough to put an arm through it and retrieve a plate of food she didn’t want. After closing the door and setting the plate on the ground, she turned the lights up a little and then got back into bed, hugging a pillow to her chest.

That night, sleep didn’t come easy. She had stopped crying, but couldn’t stop the thoughts that whirled through her head. She began to wonder… maybe Keith was right. Maybe she’d just been imagining all the weird feelings she’d been having about him, from the stress of first contact or something. When she reached out, now, to the place in her which had always felt vacant and distant, the place she’d assumed a soulbond should live, she could now feel a dull and tender throb of pain. Were those Keith’s emotions? Were they hers? Or were they the feelings of someone else, someone nearby? 

Even after being scientific about it, Pidge was almost certain they were Keith’s. But maybe Keith hadn’t been lying. Maybe she could feel his presence and his emotions, but he couldn’t feel hers. Maybe the soulmark doctor had been right, and their soulbond was damaged. For the first time in her life, Pidge regretted that she’d never taken those relationship counselling classes for people with damaged or difficult soulbonds. Pidge had no idea what to do now. She didn’t know what to say to Keith anymore.

Even if they _were_ soulmates… Pidge had no right to demand he treat her a certain way just because of it. Although the soulmark was a metaphysical bond, soulmates had no obligation to do anything for each other. They were as free to come and go as they were in any other relationship, and that was part of the beauty of successful soulmate relationships. But Pidge wanted – desperately, desperately wanted – to have a relationship with Keith, even if it was just a regular friendship. She couldn’t give up, hardly even knowing who her soulmate was as a person.

The next morning, Pidge finally ate the cold leftovers from the night before, grimacing at the texture. Space food. She splashed her face with cold water in the bathroom, not wanting to look her reflection in the eyes and see the exhaustion and sadness there. She wanted to talk to Keith, but… she wasn’t ready to face him yet. So instead, she tried to go about her day as normal, training with the other paladins and acting like nothing was wrong. 

For the rest of the week, Keith kept his distance. The two of them didn’t really look at each other – which wasn’t much of a change from how they had been before, so the other paladins didn’t notice. But it felt different, inside – more purposefully cold. 

Shiro, at least, noticed that Pidge seemed out of sorts. He went out of his way to be kind to her, giving her more compliments during training and more friendly hair-ruffles and shoulder pats in their down time – when Pidge wasn’t holed up in her room, searching for ways to find her dad and Matt. For the first time, Pidge started to regret not having gotten to know Shiro well before he went on the Kerberos mission. He was thoughtful, compassionate, level-headed, and dependable. No wonder Matt liked him. Maybe later, she’d go practice her Japanese with him. 

Finally, chance handed her the opening she’d been looking for to speak with Keith. One evening, she was up late after a few hours spent trying to spy on distant Galra warships with a radio device similar to the one she’d been using on Earth. She left her room to get a late night snack, and on the way back she found Keith in the common room, sprawled out over one of the sofas, staring up at the ceiling. 

Keith had not seen her approach. Pidge paused in the doorway and swallowed. Finally, she advanced into the room. 

“Um… Keith,” Pidge managed to get out, hovering behind the closest sofa. At the sound of her voice, Keith shot up and looked around until he saw her, his expression dismayed. Before he could say anything, Pidge burst out with, “I’m sorry about the other day. I really want to be your friend.”

Keith looked taken aback. “Uh – oh,” he said. “Friends? Yeah, okay, I can do that. Uh… _just_ friends, right?”

“If anything else happens between us, it won’t be because of my soulmark,” Pidge promised. Keith blinked. And then he sighed. 

“I’m sorry too,” he said. “It was just a lot, you know? I’d never even heard of soulmates before.”

“Yeah, and I’ve been hearing about them all my life,” Pidge said ruefully. “I don’t blame you for freaking out. It is kindof... a lot.” She stepped around the sofa, choosing the one opposite Keith to sitting down, a little stiffly. 

Keith nodded. “All my life it’s just been me and my family, and now I could have this whole other person who I’m apparently supposed to be together with forever? How am I supposed to handle that? What if we hate each other?”

Pidge wasn’t sure if he was referring to her or to a potential soulmate in general when he said “this whole other person”. Deciding to interpret his question as scientific curiosity, she pushed her glasses up her nose with one hand and explained, “Well, that’s the beauty of soulmates. Your base personalities are always compatible – unless there’s something wrong with the soulbond. Sure, soulmates have to work on their relationship just like anybody else. You don’t have to stay together if you don’t want to. But you go into it knowing that there’s a higher-than-average chance that it could work out.”

Keith considered this, then shook his head. “I don’t know that much about human culture. My parents both died when I was a baby. My dads who raised me are actually my uncles. They tried to use my mom’s field notes to give me some idea of what life on Earth was like, but... she didn’t send back that much information. She was only stationed on Earth for two years. I’m afraid that even if I did have a soulmate... I wouldn’t know what to do. I’d just mess everything up.”

“If you had a soulmate and you wanted to be together, it would be their job to give you a chance,” Pidge said, and she fully believed it. “You can’t just expect things to be perfect by magic.”

The set of Keith’s shoulders seemed to relax. Inside of her, Pidge wondered if she felt some of the tension she’d been carrying for the past week ease. 

“I guess... that doesn’t seem so bad,” Keith said. 

Pidge’s heart leapt. “You mean –” She stopped, not finishing her sentence in case she pushed him too far again.

“I mean... I think we should try to be friends. And then... who knows what will happen.” Keith’s ears flicked nervously, but he held Pidge's gaze, giving her a small smile.

Pidge nodded, giving Keith a wan smile in return. It wasn’t... what she had hoped for. But it was better than the nothing she’d been expecting for the past few years. And she wanted to take this chance. 

“That sounds good,” she said. “But I have to ask... Are you _sure_ you don’t feel... _different_ towards me?”

Keith folded his arms. “I did feel weird, on the day that I met you. I knew I could trust you, when normally I don’t trust anyone I don’t know. But I just don’t see how I could really be your soulmate if I don’t have the soulmark too.”

So he _did_ have feelings because of her. Pidge’s heart leapt again. Maybe Keith wouldn’t need the soulmark. Maybe he’d come to love her over time despite not having one. 

“That’s okay,” Pidge said honestly. “If we can at least become friends – that’s good enough for me.”

A few days later, Pidge was in her room with her radio when someone knocked on her door. When she opened it, she was pleasantly surprised to find Keith there. Without waiting for her permission, he barged into her room. Instead of his usual Blade armour, he was wearing what appeared to be a pair of Altean pyjama bottoms and an Altean dressing-gown that he was holding tightly wrapped around himself with both arms. 

“I remembered something, but don’t get your hopes up,” Keith said. Pidge tilted her head in question. “Around when I was starting staff training for the first time, I had this patch of fur that randomly started shedding, and the skin underneath looked like it was bruised. The fur grew back pretty quickly. So then I had an idea.”

“Which was?” Pidge said, still confused. Keith tightened his grip on the dressing gown. 

“Well... The doctor couldn’t account for it, but looking back, I thought what if it had something to do with a soulmark? So I asked Hunk to help me look and see... if there was something under my fur.”

Pidge sat there stiffly, absorbing the information. She was not going to get her hopes up this time. She just wasn’t.

“And did you find anything?” she said, raising her eyebrows. 

“Um,” Keith said, ears flicking as he shifted slightly. “Don’t laugh.”

“I won’t,” Pidge promised. 

Keith studied her face for a moment. Then, giving a nod, he let the dressing gown drop to the floor. Underneath, his torso was bare. It was covered in the same short purple fur as his face, with a few darker patterned markings. Under each of Keith’s pecs, big patches of fur had been shaved. Dotted all over the rest of his torso and his arms were smaller shaved rectangles, about one inch wide, spaced at nearly regular intervals. It was kinda funny. But when she saw him, Pidge’s breath caught in her throat, knowing what Keith had been looking for.

“I didn’t remember where the fur fell out that one time,” Keith sheepishly explained, rubbing one of the little patches on his hip. 

But all the shaved patches showed the same smooth purple skin underneath. There was no hint of black lettering in any of them. 

“You didn’t find it,” Pidge said, looking away.

Keith shifted awkwardly again. “Pidge...” he said. He paused, biting his lip. He had to open his mouth a few times before he found the words to speak. 

“We found a name, but... it wasn’t yours.”

Pidge’s head snapped up again. “Show me.”

Slowly, Keith turned. 

His back, like his front, was dotted with small patches of shaved fur. And there, under his right shoulder blade (the same place as Pidge’s mark, but on the opposite side), a large patch of fur had been shaved. And in that patch was a name. A name written in the same bold, black lines that all soulmarks were written in. A name that was familiar to her, in handwriting that she knew.

Pidge was so overcome that she was unable to speak. Silently she approached Keith, and with trembling fingers reached out to trace the letters on his back. When she touched him, Keith tensed up, but didn’t move away. Tears filled her eyes, then started to spill over. But as she blinked them away, the letters didn’t change. 

Keith’s soulmark read, _Kathryn Holt._

“No,” Pidge said at last, smiling widely despite the lump in her throat. “It _is_ my name. My _real_ name. Pidge is a fake name I made up to get into the Galaxy Garrison.”

“Kathryn?” Keith asked, sounding stunned.

“Katie. Katie Holt.” Pidge blinked rapidly again, finally lowering her hand to take off her glasses so she could wipe away her tears. Keith turned to face her, his expression inscrutable.

“I guess you really are my soulmate,” he said at last. “Kathryn Katie Holt.”

Then his lips curved into a smile. That was all it took for Pidge – she threw her arms around him, laughing with joy. For a moment, Keith was still, but then he put his arms around her and started laughing too. Keith’s fur was just as soft as she’d always imagined, and his laughter was quiet but honest. His joy amplified hers, and together their hearts seemed to ring out like bells tuned in harmony.

\-----  
From that moment on, things changed between Pidge – Katie – and Keith. They spent a lot of time in each other’s company, getting to know each other better. Pidge was fascinated to learn more about Galra culture and the Blade of Marmora, and Keith was equally as interested to hear about how humans lived on Earth. Pidge told Keith about her mom, her dad, and Matt, and Keith told her about his dads Thace and Ulaz, as well as the other members of the Blade who he considered his family. He would sit quietly in her room with her at night as she eavesdropped on Galra ships, talking with her occasionally and sometimes just tending to his blade, reading, or knitting clumsy scarves – a habit he’d picked up from Thace.

Meanwhile, Pidge had started up her soulmark research again, in the moments when she wasn’t searching for her family. She realised that she and Keith were a fascinating case study, the likes of which had probably never been seen on Earth before. Not only was Keith half-human, but they had been separated for light years before finally meeting. She interviewed Keith and kept a little log about their experiences – she was planning on eventually writing a paper to shove at the soulmark doctors when she returned to Earth.

Her hypothesis was that due to Keith’s physical distance from her in the early years of her bond, she had become hypersensitive to her soulbond as a way to try and find him. This had resulted in feelings of emptiness and depression, and when she had finally reunited with him, their sudden proximity had caused an influx of feeling and emotional overload as the part of her that was looking for him crashed into its target headlong. She had a feeling that even now, their bond still hadn’t _settled_ , as it were. Her emotions had been stabilising since the discovery of Keith’s soulmark, but she developing a sensibility to his presence and emotions that most soulmates took years to develop, except in the most romantic of love stories. 

One evening, Pidge and Keith were sitting in her room, laughing about something Lance had said at dinner that night. On impulse, Pidge leaned over and kissed Keith on the cheek. Keith looked over at her, surprise written all over his features.

“What was that for?” he said, bringing one hand up to touch his cheek.

“Uh... do Galra not have kissing?” Pidge said, fearing she’d made a slight miscalculation. “It’s just supposed to show that you have affection for someone.” She blushed. “Couples kiss on the lips sometimes.”

Keith blinked at her. Although Galra didn’t show a blush in the same way that humans did, due to all the fur, she recognised his shyness and embarrassment easily. 

“We have something kinda like that, to show affection,” he mumbled. Pidge raised her eyebrows at him. Steeling himself, Keith leaned forward and gently nuzzled against her hair. It was a sweet, comforting gesture. 

Drawing back, Keith muttered, “Was that okay?”

Pidge wished that she could kiss him again, but she had a feeling that if she did, he might just self-implode. “It was awesome,” she admitted, and tackled him into a hug. 

No longer the girl with a defective soulbond, she’d become the girl with a beloved alien soulmate. With Keith at her side, Pidge knew that she could face whatever the future threw at her. Kathryn Katie Pidge Holt was the luckiest human in the whole wide universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the headcanons in this fic (like Thace knitting, and the name of Keith's grandfather, for instance) are Rev's. The story is for her, after all. This wraps up the fic folks! I'll be posting all my worldbuilding notes as a bonus in the next (and last) chapter.
> 
> Comments always welcome!


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